Isaiah Simmons is just a football player

Former Clemson standout Isaiah Simmons is a football player and there could not be a better adjective to describe his skillset.

Coming into the NFL combine, Isaiah Simmons was being overlooked by virtually everyone. Sure, most people talked about his ability and his size but not many outside Clemson appreciated his ability as a football player.

As has been documented, Simmons took more than 100 snaps at five different positions last year on college football’s best defense. He accounted for eight sacks, three interceptions and 16.5 tackles for loss and was usually the best player on the field.

On top of that, he also made a ton of plays on special teams in the open field. He truly is a football player.

The combine started off with Simmons meeting with the media and he asked what position he plays and his response was simple – “defense” was his answer. There has never been an answer to simple and so eloquent. He really is just a football player in every sense of the word.

Heading into the draft, NFL talking heads love to give player comparisons and with Isaiah Simmons, there simply is not one. There has never been a guy that big, the fast and that type of playmaker on the defense side of the ball.

The best way to describe Isaiah Simmons is to simply call him a science experiment gone completely right. He is as good a person as he is a football player and will end up being one of the very best to ever come out Clemson.

By now everyone has seen the Travis Etienne and Isaiah Simmons race and we were expecting Simmons to be fast but very few expected him to be a sub 4.4 linebacker at 240 pounds. As someone put it best yesterday, Simmons tested better than every wide receiver in this draft that participated in the combine while being almost 40 pounds heavier.

There is no doubt that Isaiah “secured the bag” yesterday and as fun as the combine was, the Clemson pro day will be even better. After this weekend, Simmons has a legit shot at being the highest draft pick ever in Clemson football history. The distinction currently belongs to four former players – Clelin Ferrell, Sammy Watkins, Gaines Adams and Banks McFadden who were all the fourth overall picks of their respective drafts.